Saidpur Enterprises

Saidpur Enterprises is comprised of two groups: Action Bag Handicrafts and Eastern Screen Printers. Its Action Bag subsidiary employs women artisans who make a variety of jute products. Some have husbands who are underemployed; others are widowed. Action Bag provides literacy classes, and training on nutrition, women's legal rights, educational awareness and finance. Following the 1971 war that established Bangladesh, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) started clinics and nutrition centers in Saidpur to help address food shortages and disease. In 1976 MCC began a program to help mothers of malnourished children coming to its nutrition center. This temporary employment program became Action Bag Handicrafts, and now supports artisans selling for the fair trade export market.